6 Basic Diesel Engine Maintenance Tips

It’s very different to maintain a diesel engine from maintaining a gas engine. There are many differences among the two engines that make the diesel engine to be less costly to main. Some of these differences include the fact that diesel engines don’t have moving parts such distributor rotors that wear down as well as they don’t have any electrical ignition parts like wires or plugs like gas engines.

However, and despite the maintenance costs are more affordable, you do still need to do maintenance, especially in what comes to filter and oil changes. In the case of the filters, this diesel engine maintenance is necessary to prevent the injector system to be clogged. In what comes to the oil changes, when you don’t do this diesel engine maintenance, and you keep using that old oil, it will kill your engine.

#1: Gaskets:

Gaskets are very important in diesel engines because they are always exposed to extreme conditions. So, you need to watch them closely. With the engine vibrations, the mounting bolts need to be re-torqued regularly as well as you need to check if the coolant hoses are also secured.

#2: Air Filtration:

Diesel engines require a lot of air to work properly. So, making sure that the air filtration is working well will prevent you some headaches. When your car has a turbocharged engine this becomes even important. In fact, some even include after coolers to prevent further problems.

#3: Choosing The Oil Filter:

Many people believe that in order to do their diesel engine maintenance, they can simply pick a cheap oil filter. However, this is not entirely true. Yes, you do need to change the oil filter. But you can’t just use any filter. You need to make sure that the filter you choose exceeds the OEM filter that is recommended by the manufacturer. This will make sure that all particles will be removed from the oil.

#4: Fuel System:

You can perform the fuel system maintenance in different ways. One thing you need to have in mind is that you should always have your fuel tank full. This will prevent condensation to form and move on to the injector system. Another concern that you need to have is to change the fuel filters since this will prevent the moisture to build up.

#5: Glow Plugs:

Despite diesel engines don’t have a lot of carbon monoxide unlike the gas engines, they do produce black soot. This is what results from the incomplete combustion. However, this isn’t the origin of the problem. This is all related with the injectors: they might be dirty or might not be working properly and may be sending a lot of fuel. And this is where the glow plugs enter. Their goal is to heat the combustion chamber to help burn the fuel. So, checking these plugs is very important, especially before winter.

#6: Starting Problem:

One common problem that diesel engines have is that they usually are hard to start during the winter. One thing you can do to help you during these months is to install an electrical heater on the cylinder block.

Despite the diesel engine maintenance is much more affordable than a gas engine maintenance, the fact is that you still need to check different things to make sure that your engine runs smoothly. One of the things that many people like to use and actually advise you to use as well is a diesel fuel additive. So, make sure to check the best diesel fuel additives that you can use.